Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

Shushan Purim is celebrated in cities that were wall at the time of Joshua. Why, since Joshua lived centuries before the story took place. This is to teach the centrality of Jerusalem to the Jewish people.

The question is why the Jews are the only people who have faced genocide throughout history. The answer is simple. The Jews represent a morality from God. And many people do not want to be moral.

God seemingly does not appear in the Book of Esther. The truth is we see God's providence in all that takes place.

The Fast of Esther is to remind us that we should be aware of problematic leaders. We should be alert to the dangers facing us in these situations.

While Mordechai wanted to something due to the danger the Jews were in, Esther explains that only she is able to deal with the situation since she knew how Achashverosh operated, what made him tick.

When Jews stand up for their rights they achieve them. When they don't then they are mistreated. This is the lesson of Purim and Jewish history.

While we know about Aaron's sons and grandsons, we do not know about Moses's sons and grandsons. This is to teach that leadership is not inherited but achieved through merit.

The Torah goes out of it way to praise Betzalel and Oholiab for their contributions and talents. This is to teach us to praise those who do the right thing and encourage others to emulate them.

In the Book of Esther we read that When Esther points out that she would be placing herself in danger to bring the plight of the Jews before the king, Mordechai points out that God is in charge.

While the Tabernacle had a spiritual mission, it was a physical building. As such money was needed for the building and maintenance of the Tabernacle. This is why we say, without flour there is no Torah.

The goal of the Torah is to teach us ethical monotheism. That we worship an ethical and moral God Who wants to be ethical and moral.

The prohibition of the creation of fire on Shabbat is to remember that God created the world & that fire is one of the few acts that we humans do that shows our uniqueness.

The Torah keeps reminding us of the importance of keeping the Shabbat. That Shabbat overrides the building of the Tabernacle. That is to remind us that more than the Jews have kept Shabbat, the Shabbat has kept the Jews.

Moses called for donations to the building of the Tabernacle. The Jews gave so much that he had to ask them to stop giving. This is the nature of a truly religious people. When asked to give, they give.

The reason that the Jews built the Golden Calf was that they thought that without Moses that they would not have been redeemed. The lesson is that our leaders are vessels for God. They succeed when they do what God expects.

After giving the instructions concerning the building of the Tabernacle, God reminds the Jewish people of the importance of keeping the Sabbath. This so that we remember why we have the Tabernacle.

Betzalel was chosen to fashion the tools of the Tabernacle. His name means "In the shadow of God." This is to teach us that our talents, be they what they are, are from God.

The sin of the Golden Calf was that it assumes that our rights come from a man. The Torah is pointing out that our rights are God given. That they cannot be taken away by the government.

The story of the Golden Calf seems to be out of place. It should have been recorded after the events at Mt. Sinai. This is to teach us that the Torah is more interested in our actions rather than beliefs.

Malicious gossip is detrimental to both the speaker and the listener. The whole purpose is to bring down the subject. Instead of trying to build themselves up and improve they want to tear down.

The purpose of the shew-bread was to remind the priests that their job was to serve the rest of the people. That they should be prideful of their position.

The Vilna Gaon looked at the US & understood that a Jew could become president. To him this meant the beginning of the redemption. So he sent his top students to Israel to begin the process of rebuilding the land.

While a republican form of government is considered the best, there are some things that are not up to a vote. Torah Law is one of them.

The Torah is detailed oriented about how a priest should dress while serving in the Tabernacle. The question is why. The answer is we behave better when dressed properly.

The priests were commanded to burn the entrails of the sacrifices in the Tabernacle. This was to lead the Jewish people away from the Egyptian culture which used the entrails to divine the future. It was meant to get Egyptian culture out of the Jews.